Stratospheric Ozone Protection and Climate Change

Ozone-Depleting Substances Have High Global Warming Potential

Global warming potential (GWP) represents how
much a given mass of a chemical contributes to global warming over a given
time period compared to the same mass of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide's GWP
is defined as 1.0. Many ozone-depleting substances have high GWPs. For
example, CFC-12 has a GWP around 10,000 and HCFC-22 has a GWP around
1,800.

Effect of the Montreal Protocol on Climate

Because ozone-depleting substances have high GWPs, efforts to reduce the
emissions of these substances under the Montreal Protocol result in a
significant benefit to the climate and the stratospheric ozone layer.

A groundbreaking paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences titled The Importance of the
Montreal Protocol in Protecting the Climate calculates the benefits
to the climate from citizen action and the Montreal Protocol in phasing out
ozone-depleting substances that are also powerful greenhouse gases. This team
of scientists (Drs. Guus Velders, Stephen O. Andersen, John Daniel, David
Fahey, and Mack McFarland) estimates that between 1990 and 2010 the Montreal
Protocol will avoid roughly 5-6 times the emissions reductions required
during the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. They calculate that
Montreal Protocol emission reductions will delay climate change by 7-12
years. They show that without the reductions of the Montreal Protocol, the
climate impacts predicted by the IPCC and other scientists would be
encountered far sooner.

In September 2007, at the 19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal
Protocol, signatory nations agreed to more aggressively phase out
ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). The estimated climate
benefit of the new, stronger HCFC phaseout may be around 9,000 million metric
tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2-eq). This is equivalent to avoiding
the emissions from 55 million U.S. passenger cars, or 40% of all U.S.
passenger cars, each year for the next 30 years. More information on the benefits of the recent
agreement can be found here.

EPA Efforts Reduce Ozone-Depleting Substances and Also Protect the
Climate

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative
alliance with the supermarket industry and other stakeholders. The goal of
GreenChill is to promote advanced technologies, strategies, and practices
that reduce the amount of refrigerant used in equipment and emitted to the
atmosphere. Refrigerants are greenhouse gases and may also deplete the ozone
layer.

In 2007, GreenChill partners reduced emissions of ozone-depleting
substances by 30 ODP weighted metric tons. In
2007, GreenChill also reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 MMTCO2-eq, or
the equivalent of avoiding the emissions from 0.5 million passenger cars from
one year.

Through the voluntary Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program, EPA
partners with retailers, utilities, universities, municipalities, and
manufacturers to responsibly dispose of appliances like refrigerators and
freezers. The partners in the RAD Program achieve benefits for the ozone
layer and for the global climate by using best practices to ensure that:

EPA estimates that RAD Partners will dispose of more than 1 million
refrigerant-containing appliances in 2008. Application of the program’s
best practices in 2008 will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 4
MMTCO2-eq, or the equivalent of avoiding the emissions from 0.92 million
passenger cars from one year.